It is well appreciated that individuals often wish to cosmetically maintain the coloring of their hair, and oftentimes seek to alter the coloring of their hair, by various known hair coloring treatments. These treatments are typically not inexpensive and are frequently time consuming as well. Moreover, the chemicals employed in these treatments can be caustic and somewhat damaging to the hair. Thus, individuals who have had their hair color-treated are often desirous of prolonging the effects of the hair coloring treatment for as long a period as possible, and otherwise wish to keep the hair in as healthy a state as possible between visits to the colorist.
One way of prolonging the freshness of a hair coloring treatment and to otherwise preserve the condition of the hair is to use a hair color maintenance shampoo. Examples of such hair color maintenance shampoos include the various ARTec.RTM. Colorist Collection Color Enhancing Shampoos made for and sold by the ARTec.RTM. Systems Group, Inc. of Roslyn Heights, N.Y. Such hair color maintenance shampoos are typically formulated with a degree of coloring, so as to assist the individual in his attempt to prolong the duration of the coloring treatment.
One factor of great importance in formulating typical hair color maintenance shampoos is that they must be prepared giving consideration to at least two variables--the cosmetically altered or natural coloring of the client's hair, together with the tone of the hair. Encompassing the gamut of individual hair colors there exist a number of basic hair colors: brunette, blonde, red, and black. Within each of these color categories are various degrees of tones which a person's hair may possess. Thus, someone with brown hair can have tones varying from ash (a drab blue) to red to gold. For red colored hair, the tones can vary from burgundy to strawberry. For blonde colored hair, the tones can vary from ash (drab) to golden to platinum.
In order to provide an appropriate shampoo which will maintain the color treatment of a given individual's hair, then, various shampoo color formulations will need to be met depending upon the coloring of the hair and the tone associated with the hair. For instance, a hair maintenance shampoo for an individual having blond colored hair must be formulated differently depending upon whether that individual's hair tone varies from burgundy to strawberry.
To meet the varying needs of the gamut of potential individual hair tones and colorings, the current practice of most salons is to stock a large variety and quantity of pre-prepared hair color maintenance shampoos. Thus, salons are normally forced to anticipate the various combinations of hair tones and colorings, and the salon must stock a pre-prepared hair coloring maintenance shampoo for each of the various combinations.
Some salons have also attempted to modify stock shampoos as needed. One way is to have the customer purchase a plurality of stock shampoos and have the customer hand-mix the same at the point they are to be used in an effort to arrive at some mix appropriate for the hair color and tone of a particular customer. However, this is often an ad-hoc procedure, prone to much experimentation on the part of the colorist and client. Such efforts frequently result in a less than adequate formulation for the client that does not precisely match the color and tone of the client's hair. Moreover, the procedure is highly inaccurate, as the actual mix will typically be inconsistent each time the client prepares the formulation for its application to the hair.
As can well be imagined, then, the current practice is somewhat limited and presents problems both to the salon and to the client. Due to the abrasive nature of the color treatment, it is in the client's best interest to maintain the condition of the hair as healthy as possible between visits to the colorist. If the hair color is properly maintained, a colorist need only treat any new hair growth occurring between salon visits, and not the previously treated ends of the hair. If a properly matched shampoo is not employed, the previously treated portions of the hair will require additional treatment, leading to potential long-term hair damage, particularly if the treatments are continued often.
Moreover, to meet the varying shampoo needs, most salons are forced to carry large varieties and quantities of pre-prepared hair maintenance shampoos, thereby taking up valuable shelf and floor space (a particularly significant consideration in areas where retail store space is leased at a premium rate). There are numerous attendant inventory problems created for each salon seeking to maintain adequate stock of the appropriate pre-prepared shampoos and in anticipating the appropriate need for various of the pre-prepared shampoos, further adding expense and time to the effort of the salon. These problems, of course, will be greatly amplified where a chain or network of retail salons is involved, the inventory typically centrally stored and distributed to the affiliated retail outlets.
Finally, significant problems of creative control are presented to the colorist and client when only a stock number of pre-prepared hair color maintenance shampoos are available. It will be virtually impossible to keep on hand a prepared shampoo which exactly matches the color and tone of the client's hair. Certain customers will have more unique hair tones and/or more unique cosmetically altered colors or natural colors. For these cases, an appropriate pre-mixed hair color maintenance shampoo will be difficult to procure or will otherwise be unavailable to the colorist, leaving the colorist with the dilemma of somehow creating an adequate substitute color shampoo from the available premixed stock tailored to the customer, or otherwise forcing the customer to settle for a less than adequate shampoo from available stock. In severe cases, the customer will have to do without a color maintenance shampoo.
Overall, then, the current practice of advising the customer to experiment with various stock shampoos in a rote (trial-and-error) manner is quite inaccurate, resulting in much wasted shampoo and expense associated therewith. More often than not, the trial and error method consistently yields a less than adequate shampoo formulation for that individual's hair.
There exists a need, therefore, for a system and a method of preparing appropriate hair color maintenance shampoos on-site tailored both to the cosmetically altered or natural coloring of each customer's hair and to the tone of that individual's hair, which will produce a hair color maintenance shampoo precisely tailored to the customer's hair color and tone, which eliminates the inventory and stock problems associated with the current practice, which will permit the colorist a high degree of creative control in addressing the gamut of hair tones and colorings which will be encountered in practice, and which will address the ad-hoc experimentation customers currently practice to mix their own shampoos from stock offerings.
There are known in the prior art various industry-available dye color mixing applications. Rather than prolonging the freshness of the hair coloring treatment and maintaining the coloring treatment that has already been imparted to the hair, these applications are typically directed to the formulation of the color dyes themselves for their use in the actual salon hair coloring process.
For instance, a number of industry applications are directed to allowing a stylist to cross-reference a client's hair color level against either a hair tone or a desired color level, so as to permit the stylist to select a single pre-mixed color dye from a large quantity of different pre-mixed dyes that are shipped by the manufacturer of the system for use with the system. Typically, these dyes are then mixed with a so-called "generator" or "developer" to activate the color for the processing treatment. The stylist's choice of the single, appropriate pre-mixed dye product is sometimes governed by a chart which cross-references hair color level against hair tone or desired color level. The available pre-mixed dyes are listed at various locations on the chart, typically with a single, pre-mixed dye satisfying a small number of combinations, and often only one, of specific hair color level against desired hair color level or hair tone. Examples of such systems include the Logics International, Inc. "Color Facts" and "Attitudes" dye product-system; the Synaplex "Mid-Color" Ultra-Shine No-Lift Hair Color system; and the Wella "Color Charm" Liquid Cream Hair Color system.
Certain other color dye preparation systems provide the stylist with some degree of guidance to adapt certain particular pre-mixed dyes, or combinations thereof, so as to address a particular client's hair. These systems oftentimes extend to voluminous or otherwise cumbersome reference materials which must be utilized or cross-referenced in accordance with the base system. An example of such system is described in the Clairol Professional Encyclopedia, "Hair Color". For instance, the Clairol Encyclopedia refers to a so-called "Torrids" formulator chart cross-referencing a natural hair color against a desired hair color. The chart features a series of individual discrete boxes, each box representative of a single natural hair color level and a single desired hair color level, leading the stylist to select one or more hair dyes which can be used independently or mixed to some degree to meet that single natural hair color level and that single desired hair color level. Separate from the chart, the Encyclopedia provides the stylist with certain textual recommendation for use with the Torrids system, in advising of a custom dye formulation table listing for the stylist certain customized formulas of two or more volumetric quantities of color dyes. However, these recommendations tend to be for specific coloring instances only and are not tied to any particular organized methodology to prepare color dye mixes for any type of possible hair coloring situation. Various aspects of color dye mixing is also referenced in the Schwarzkopf Color Technical Manual (albeit without the provision of a chart correlating hair colors and tones) and in the Framesi 2001 Hair Color Training Manual.
As will be appreciated, most of the color dye systems employ a large number of pre-mixed color dyes. Typically, it is the intent of these systems that the stylist select a single pre-mixed dye from a large number used in the particular coloring system. Rather than maintain the freshness of a prior hair coloring treatment, the intent of these color dye systems is to select a color dye which will change the color of a person's hair, cover gray hair, or the like. In effect, then, these systems endeavor to make precise color for a very specific, narrow characteristic of a person's hair, not to continually hold or maintain or prolong the freshness of color already applied to a person's hair. While certain of the dye systems include some background information as to combining more than one pre-mixed dye to accommodate a particular colorist's need, the information is oftentimes not made integral with the bulk of the system. The information is typically embodied in a textual form separate and apart from the depictions used in the system, and the information is oftentimes limited to a discrete number of particular coloring applications, without any particular methodology or organization to guide the stylist to modifications across a wide gamut of potential hair coloring situations. Generally, then, owing to the existing concerns, the systems are not adapted to on-site preparation of a hair color maintainance shampoo product which can be utilized at home by a wide variety of customers.
There are also known in the prior art certain other systems for mixing proportions of materials to arrive at a desired mix. None of these systems, however, addresses the unique needs faced by the salon colorist in practice. For example, Morley, U.S. Pat. No. 1,744,328 is directed to a cocktail shaker. A transparent "body member" is provided having a depression molded therein. The depression accepts a formula strip which is calibrated for a particular cocktail to be made. The formula strip includes a series of gradations to proportion various ingredients for the specific cocktail. This provides the information necessary to mix a single cocktail on a single pre-printed strip, without a discernible way to vary and personalize the mix according to specific factors. The mixing system of Morley is thus intended to mix a single combination depending on the particular strip used.
Johnson, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 3,948,105 is directed to a proportioning and mixing "graduate". A main liquid retaining compartment is provided in communication with a mixing compartment and a smaller liquid receiving compartment. Gradation marks are provided in the main compartment, with a "ratio array" of discrete graduated columns provided in the smaller compartment. The volume relationship between the large and small compartments is specifically predetermined in a manner such that the specific ratio of the main compartment content to the smaller compartment content is illustrated by the ratio-designating indicia at the upper end of each column of the array, when the number at the level of the liquid in the main compartment corresponds to a like number at the level of the liquid in any column of the ration array. An example is illustrated at Col. 3, lines 13-25 of the patent. However, Johnson, Jr. relates only to a bottle for offering a proper ratio mix of two liquids employing the so-called "ratio array" of fixed mixes. An indefinite number of liquid variations, matched to different conditions, cannot be achieved by the system of Johnson, Jr.
In a similar vein, Barnett, U.S. Pat. No. 4,292,846, also relates to a liquid proportioning container. A body portion constitutes the main reservoir of the container. The container includes a spout having calibrating marks at certain intervals. The spout is removable from the body portion to be filled to a desired level of fluid (in this case, oil). When the fluid is poured into the body portion and that body portion filled with the main liquid (in this case, gasoline), a desired fluid ratio will be attained. Again, as in Johnson Jr., no mention or suggestion is made of a system for formulating a wide variety of mixes.
In addition, certain systems are known to determine the color hue of a substance. For instance, Augur, U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,745, is directed to a system for determining the hue and value of a paint by a color wheel and gray scale. The system uses a bottle with a label designating certain bands of colors. The label may be rounded and would include twelve colors of a color wheel arrayed around the margin of the label. Each of the colors form an arcuate band on the label. The color bands extend to edges of the label to "bleed" into the color of a paint held in container, to aid the user to determine the color of paint, to choose complementary colors, or the like. While Augur provides a color matching system, no system is disclosed for measuring and mixing proportions of colors to obtain a personalized hair color shampoo, weighed against both the hair color and the natural hair tone.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for on-site formulation of hair color maintenance shampoo products which are personalized to the individual user.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system and method for on-site formulation of hair color maintenance shampoo products for individual users which are personalized to both the hair coloring of the individual user as well as to the tone of the individual's hair.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a system and method for formulating hair color maintenance shampoo products for individual users which may be produced on-site in the salon, thereby obviating inventory requirements and the need for maintaining a multifarious stock of pre-prepared color maintenance shampoo products.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a system and method for on-site formulation of hair color maintenance shampoo products for individual users to accommodate a wide variety of hair tones and colorings which can be easily modified by the colorist as desired, and which will yield a consistent product each time it is used by the customer that is appropriate for the individual's hair color and tone.
The foregoing specific objects and advantages of the invention are illustrative of those which can be achieved by the present invention and are not intended to be exhaustive or limiting of the possible advantages which can be realized. Thus, these and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description herein or can be learned from practicing the invention, both as embodied herein or as modified in view of any variations which may be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the present invention resides in the novel parts, constructions, arrangements, combinations and improvements herein shown and described.